Energy Provider ?

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Originally Posted by 2b2bdoo

I started on British Gas and it took me an hour to get through on the phone to them.

Octopus I’m happy to email knowing they come back asap.

I would happily pay more for them than British Gas, never thought I’d say that a few years ago.

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wait till you email them with a problem and see if they come back asap

In theory the energy companies are not supposed to keep your excess money for over a 6 months and used to return it automatically, which some customers complained about , as they were building up a buffer for winter.
However in the past couple of weeks I've had to call up and get £3500 refunded for two people in their eighties. They were also paying far too much for their averagr monthly consumption The companies now seem to rely on inertia and complicated bills to keep some customers money. Ring them and challenge it.
Also possibly pay by standing order rather than DD which they can alter .
Dont trust them , I worked there and the service ,as always, relies on which member of demoralised staff you get through to.

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Originally Posted by Random in Duquesa

In theory the energy companies are not supposed to keep your excess money for over a 6 months and used to return it automatically, which some customers complained about , as they were building up a buffer for winter.
However in the past couple of weeks I've had to call up and get £3500 refunded for two people in their eighties. They were also paying far too much for their averagr monthly consumption The companies now seem to rely on inertia and complicated bills to keep some customers money. Ring them and challenge it.
Also possibly pay by standing order rather than DD which they can alter .
Dont trust them , I worked there and the service ,as always, relies on which member of demoralised staff you get through to.

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I refuse to sign a contract with any of them , it costs me a few quid on top every year but that's the way it is

I wish I could do the same with broadband , water , the lot of em

60 quid a month at present with octopus

And good communication too

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

60 quid a month at present with octopus

And good communication too

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Most of your devices use batteries though don't they?

They want me to go to £217 a month !!

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Originally Posted by Michael Morris

Most of your devices use batteries though don't they?

They want me to go to £217 a month !!

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Octopus ?

Tell them you want to be charged monthly and pay them with card on their website

I don't like eon and I am glad I left but they and octopus seem the most reasonable price wise ?

200 quid a month on energy ?

Are you growing something in the attic ?

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

Octopus ?

Tell them you want to be charged monthly and pay them with card on their website

I don't like eon and I am glad I left but they and octopus seem the most reasonable price wise ?

200 quid a month on energy ?

Are you growing something in the attic ?

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You short of supplies, then?

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

You short of supplies, then?

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My attic is full of dead bodies

My mate is paying 100 quid less with EON than octopus

But I couldn't deal with any more of their inept nonsense

We have been with Octopus for a couple of years and they are the best energy company we have ever dealt with; and we've been with quite a few since we dropped the "loyalty" aspect which counts for nothing these days.

In the last 2 days I have opted for the Octopus new 12 month fixed rate tariff. I had some trouble using their website to do this and I emailed them. Got a reply within hours and someone there at HQ signed me up for the new tariff for me. They are very flexible when it comes to the monthly D/D. Indeed once again this time I have requested a lower D/D than they originally estimated and it was accepted without argument. I think you would need to show your calculation so that the amount proposed is reasonable and not some silly low offer!

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Originally Posted by Gofer Blue

We have been with Octopus for a couple of years and they are the best energy company we have ever dealt with; and we've been with quite a few since we dropped the "loyalty" aspect which counts for nothing these days.

In the last 2 days I have opted for the Octopus new 12 month fixed rate tariff. I had some trouble using their website to do this and I emailed them. Got a reply within hours and someone there at HQ signed me up for the new tariff for me. They are very flexible when it comes to the monthly D/D. Indeed once again this time I have requested a lower D/D than they originally estimated and it was accepted without argument. I think you would need to show your calculation so that the amount proposed is reasonable and not some silly low offer!

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I don't understand the lack of loyalty deals with energy and broadband , phones , TV etc

No wonder so many people think well sod you then , I am off

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Originally Posted by Michael Morris

Most of your devices use batteries though don't they?

They want me to go to £217 a month !!

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Cheap Mike .
2 bed apartment , everything electric but hardly here £245 a month to catch up after paying £140 a month for the last year .
So its a water heater , the cooker and lights . Electric is expensive , glad I don't have an electric car .
British Gas.... but I shopped around before I signed up for a couple of years.

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Originally Posted by Jimmy the Jock

Cheap Mike .
2 bed apartment , everything electric but hardly here £245 a month to catch up after paying £140 a month for the last year .
So its a water heater , the cooker and lights . Electric is expensive , glad I don't have an electric car .
British Gas.... but I shopped around before I signed up for a couple of years.

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I pay £209 per month with Octopus. Three adults, gas for heating and hot water, everything else is electric. The account is £329 in credit at the moment so should see me through the winter.

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Originally Posted by RichardM

I pay £209 per month with Octopus. Three adults, gas for heating and hot water, everything else is electric. The account is £329 in credit at the moment so should see me through the winter.

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Gas is almost always the provider for heating and water isn't it ?

What else can you do

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

I don't understand the lack of loyalty deals with energy and broadband , phones , TV etc

No wonder so many people think well sod you then , I am off

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Yes, we were with SWALEC for years and years and never bothered to look around elsewhere as there was always that "fear factor" associated with changing utility suppliers, which today seems ridiculous. Once we did compare prices there was no going back!

We will now be paying £70 p.m. for electricity, fixed for 12 months which will hopefully see us through the expected price rises this winter. Our heating and hot water is provided by oil fired boiler. The cost of heating oil is hugely variable usually depending on who is fighting who in the middle east at the time.

We use 1300 litres p.a. so even at 60p./litre (the current price) that's quite a lump. There is a bit of a cartel in operation too with heating oil suppliers. The minimum order is always 500 litres with payment within 7 days - so that's £300 to find (no staged payments or D/D possible!). Over the last 4 years it has varied from 30p to £1.12 per litre! Those of you on mains gas count your blessings!

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Originally Posted by Gofer Blue

Yes, we were with SWALEC for years and years and never bothered to look around elsewhere as there was always that "fear factor" associated with changing utility suppliers, which today seems ridiculous. Once we did compare prices there was no going back!

We will now be paying £70 p.m. for electricity, fixed for 12 months which will hopefully see us through the expected price rises this winter. Our heating and hot water is provided by oil fired boiler. The cost of heating oil is hugely variable usually depending on who is fighting who in the middle east at the time.

We use 1300 litres p.a. so even at 60p./litre (the current price) that's quite a lump. There is a bit of a cartel in operation too with heating oil suppliers. The minimum order is always 500 litres with payment within 7 days - so that's £300 to find (no staged payments or D/D possible!). Over the last 4 years it has varied from 30p to £1.12 per litre! Those of you on mains gas count your blessings!

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So how much is your heating oil bill per month ?

ie .....70 quid electricity plus ?

It's difficult to put a monthly figure on it because I have to buy a minimum of 500 litres at a time. I try not to let the tank drop below about 300 litres in case of a sudden supply problem so I usually buy 1000 litres at a time. When I topped up in June oil was 75p per litre so that was £750-worth. So 1300 litres would cost £975 which would work out at an average of £81 per month.

We have PV solar panels and solar thermal panels on the roof so we are saving both electricity and oil thanks to these. Otherwise our energy bills would be much higher.

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Originally Posted by poc

wait till you email them with a problem and see if they come back asap

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Very quickly, I emailed as I had issues with my Gas smart meter not working and they came out and tried to fix it. I emailed again as it still didn’t work and they came out and replaced it.

Also had sent them an email when they didn’t register my energy saving (they give you points at certain times to save energy) and they came back and over compensated me.

Not big things but very helpful.

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Originally Posted by Gofer Blue

It's difficult to put a monthly figure on it because I have to buy a minimum of 500 litres at a time. I try not to let the tank drop below about 300 litres in case of a sudden supply problem so I usually buy 1000 litres at a time. When I topped up in June oil was 75p per litre so that was £750-worth. So 1300 litres would cost £975 which would work out at an average of £81 per month.

We have PV solar panels and solar thermal panels on the roof so we are saving both electricity and oil thanks to these. Otherwise our energy bills would be much higher.

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150 quid or so a month 🤔

That's quite high if you also have solar panels

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

150 quid or so a month 🤔

That's quite high if you also have solar panels

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Maybe at face value but we have a 4 bedroom house with 180 sq.m. of floor space. The average 4 bedroom house in the U.K. apparently uses 4100 kWh of electricity p.a. and we use 2500 kWh. The average 4 bedroom house in the U.K. uses 133 kWh/sq.m. for space heating and we use 72 kWh/sq.m. (in reality less than that because I can't differentiate between oil used to provide DHW and that used for space heating).

The low electricity demand is because we have the solar PV panels and low wattage lighting everywhere. We have also invested in an air frier which has reduced the need to use the oven and the induction hob as much.

The space heating demand is low because we have massively increased the amount of insulation including internal wall insulation, cavity wall insulation and 300mm in the loft space. The room thermostat is set rather high at 22C in the winter months (my better half feels the cold!) which obviously increases oil usage. Insulation is very cost effective! The solar thermal panels provide all our DHW from about May to August. We occasionally have to top up using the boiler on cloudy days.

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Originally Posted by Gofer Blue

Maybe at face value but we have a 4 bedroom house with 180 sq.m. of floor space. The average 4 bedroom house in the U.K. apparently uses 4100 kWh of electricity p.a. and we use 2500 kWh. The average 4 bedroom house in the U.K. uses 133 kWh/sq.m. for space heating and we use 72 kWh/sq.m. (in reality less than that because I can't differentiate between oil used to provide DHW and that used for space heating).

The low electricity demand is because we have the solar PV panels and low wattage lighting everywhere. We have also invested in an air frier which has reduced the need to use the oven and the induction hob as much.

The space heating demand is low because we have massively increased the amount of insulation including internal wall insulation, cavity wall insulation and 300mm in the loft space. The room thermostat is set rather high at 22C in the winter months (my better half feels the cold!) which obviously increases oil usage. Insulation is very cost effective! The solar thermal panels provide all our DHW from about May to August. We occasionally have to top up using the boiler on cloudy days.

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Does the air fryer save you much ? 🤔

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

Does the air fryer save you much ? 🤔

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I haven’t drilled down to the actual cost saving of an air fryer but I find that something that takes 35 mins in the oven takes 20 mins in my ninja.

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Originally Posted by 19bluebirds27

I haven’t drilled down to the actual cost saving of an air fryer but I find that something that takes 35 mins in the oven takes 20 mins in my ninja.

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Nice one

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

Does the air fryer save you much ? ��

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It's a case of every little helps I think. Our oven requires about 3 kW and the airfrier 2 kW. The former has to be on for about 10 minutes to heat up before putting food in it to cook. The air frier is far quicker e.g. oven ready chips can be cooked from frozen in about 10 minutes - roughly the same time as it would take for the oven to heat up.

We also have a Brevill water heater which will boil a small amount of water e.g. just enough for a single cup or mug. This is far less wasteful of electricity than a kettle in which we always boiled too much water. The Breville boils enough water for a mug in about 1 minute. Again not a huge saving per single use but over the course of a year say, a quite significant difference I would think as we drink huge quantities of tea and coffee!

We have a portable I-R heating panel which we use in the living room when the evenings start to get a bit chilly rather than fire up the central heating. It uses 0.4 kW but has the heat equivalent output of about 2 kW as it directly heats objects in the room (including people!) rather than the air in the room which requires convection to heat up the room. So it's quite economical to use.

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Originally Posted by Gofer Blue

It's a case of every little helps I think. Our oven requires about 3 kW and the airfrier 2 kW. The former has to be on for about 10 minutes to heat up before putting food in it to cook. The air frier is far quicker e.g. oven ready chips can be cooked from frozen in about 10 minutes - roughly the same time as it would take for the oven to heat up.

We also have a Brevill water heater which will boil a small amount of water e.g. just enough for a single cup or mug. This is far less wasteful of electricity than a kettle in which we always boiled too much water. The Breville boils enough water for a mug in about 1 minute. Again not a huge saving per single use but over the course of a year say, a quite significant difference I would think as we drink huge quantities of tea and coffee!

We have a portable I-R heating panel which we use in the living room when the evenings start to get a bit chilly rather than fire up the central heating. It uses 0.4 kW but has the heat equivalent output of about 2 kW as it directly heats objects in the room (including people!) rather than the air in the room which requires convection to heat up the room. So it's quite economical to use.

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IR heating panel ?

You mean the ones that you can see glowing rings ?